


little bird, little bird, fly through my window (and find molasses candy)

by MulaSaWala



Series: In Any Other World [5]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Collection: In Any Other World, College Professor! Harold, Fluff and Humor, Fluffy Puppy: Please Rub Belly?, Gen, M/M, Millionaire!John, Romance, a fwp, as in, but fluffy, it's going to be like that, like a Romance Novel, like a pwp, mostly - Freeform, what's the opposite of Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, you were warned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-23 00:32:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11391642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MulaSaWala/pseuds/MulaSaWala
Summary: After fleeing the FBI as a teenager, Harold had found safety in MIT, and never really left academia. He was a straight shot, from undergrad to Ph.D. to Distinguished Professorship granted for Exceptional Work in the Field. He was something to aspire to (or a cautionary tale, depending on who you asked).To his students, Professor Harold Whistler was a beloved fixture at the university, a kind old man who did experiments with the Mad Professor Claypool, and their beleaguered intern, Monica Jacobs.But......Rumor has it......Professor Whistler has been seen out and about with a dashing multi-millionaire, and a former member of the U.S. Army Special Forces. A certain Mr. John Wiley...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is me taking a run at the Traditional Romance Genre? You know the ones I mean, where they have that shirtless guy and the lady whose gown is half-open? (I think they're called Bodice Rippers? :P)
> 
> I used to love those (and still read the odd one once in a while, lol), particularly by Lisa Keypas, or Johanna Lindsey, or Susan Elizabeth Philipps? Some of my favorites are She Who Laughs Last by Jennie Klassel, The Firebrand by Susan Wiggs, and The Unlikely Angel by Betina Krahn.
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoy this, it's probably going to be about as fluffy and plotless as [it's never too late to teach an old dog new tricks](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8278232)

 

 

MIT was a very busy place. Students rushing to and from classes, chatting amongst themselves, couriers rushing to make deliveries, the crowd dotted with exhausted teachers. To someone used to stealth, it was easy to walk around unnoticed, navigating the hallways easily to find a certain Professor's room...

 

Oblivious to the hustle and bustle outside his office, Professor Harold Whistler sat down at his desk, bleary eyed and holding a steaming cup of Sencha green tea. Sometimes, Harold wondered if maybe he should have left MIT with Nathan. They were supposed to go places, the two of them. They were going to build a company from the ground up, change the world.

 

Harold looked down at the thick stack of papers that he had to grade.

 

_'It didn't quite work out that way, did it?'_

 

He began digging around a nearby drawer for a red pen, when the door to his office burst open.

 

"Harold!"

 

Recognizing the voice, Harold didn't even look up from his search. The door to his office was closed and moments later, a red pen was wagged inches from his face, the interloper making himself comfortable in one of the chairs on the opposite side of the professor's desk.

 

Harold held in a sigh and took the pen before finally giving the visitor his undivided attention.

 

"Nathan," Harold said, a chiding tone in his voice, "I thought we were scheduled for lunch? It's only," a quick glance at his desk clock, _dear god , was it that early? Why was Nathan so lively?_  

"Quarter past seven."

 

Actual billionaire and man-who-had-a-son Nathan Ingram positively _wriggled_ in his seat like an excited puppy before leaning forward.

 

"There's going to be a three-day flash hackathon," Nathan stage-whispered, eyes crinkling around the corners. "It starts tonight," he added.

 

Harold perked up, student papers forgotten. He'd been a bit in the doldrums lately, nothing serious, just the cold weather making his old hip injury act up, and he was feeling a bit old and fat. This sounded like just the thing to lift his spirits.

 

"Anybody we know going?" Harold asked.

 

"The big ones. Pierce, Kruger, Greenfield." Nathan rattled off the names. "Matthews, probably. Mahoney. Daizo. And Arthur, he probably knows by now, but I wanted to be the one to tell you."

  
  
Harold smiled at the image of Nathan Ingram racing down the university drive, hurrying to his office while taking care to keep his identity a secret from the student lest it bring undue attention to Professor Whistler. When Harold had told his friend that he intended on staying at MIT to pursue a Master's degree (not in small part to keep out of the US Government's attention ), he'd been afraid that it would effectively end their friendship, or render it a shadow of its former self, until it withered away into nothing. Harold was extremely glad that his fears had been misplaced.

 

"Harold, guess what," Another person burst into Harold's office, also without knocking, and this time Harold really did sigh, as their other close friend, Arthur Claypool, bounced into the room, holding a box containing half a dozen donuts. Harold decided that this morning was a wash, no papers were going to be graded, and put away his new red pen.

 

"Hello Arthur," Harold greeted the portly man, while Nathan asked, "Did you hear? Are you going?"

 

"Of course I'm going," Arthur plopped himself down on the chair across from Nathan, taking out a jelly-filled doughnut before offering the box to the other men. Nathan took a plain chocolate one, biting into it, while Harold whimsically selected a pink one with sprinkles, setting it on a clean sheet of paper beside his (regretfully) rapidly cooling tea.

 

"I've been going stir crazy ever since they banned Bishop from the premises." Arthur lamented, mouth still full of sugary mush.

 

"Why wouldn't they ban him?" Nathan, at least, had the decency to swallow before speaking. "I'm surprised they didn't fire _you_ ; I read about what happened in the papers."

 

Harold could already feel his spirits lifting. His students were mostly post-graduates that didn't need handholding, and a few freshman classes that Monica could handle by herself with no problem. He could probably take a few days off. A computer science professor wouldn't be amiss as a spectator to that sort of thing, particularly in the presence of a colleague, and he could always conceal his identity once the coding had begun, like the mysterious Root who sometimes came and went without a word.

 

"Gentlemen," Harold interrupted his friends' bickering, coming to a decision. "What are we going to need to do in order to blow them away?"

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yay! I began another fic! 
> 
> (huhuhu, what is wrong with me, I should continue the ones I already have. T_T)
> 
> (Oh well, I'm just going to do what makes me happy, even if it's a bit annoying :P)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's John! Instead of Reese, He's John Wiley here. Am I going to go through all John and Harold's aliases? Who knows? :P XD

 

 

"Just smile and wave, Wiley. Smile and wave."

 

John resisted the urge to grit his teeth and did as Carter said. Through his earpiece, he could also hear Shaw snickering at a smart comment Fusco had made. _Dicks._

 

John Wiley, to the public, was your average millionaire stockbroker, with the added bonus of being somewhat of a celebrity for being out as bisexual and dating the Governor of Massachusetts, Zoe Morgan.

Though, _"dating"_ wasn't term John would use for their relationship.

 

"Something I need to know?" John said as he sat down at the best table in one of Boston's most exclusive restaurants, mouth fixed into a smile. There wasn't much press outside, and he was sure Zoe wouldn't let them be overheard, but visually, he still had a show to put on.

 

"No foreplay, John?" Zoe said as she opened the menu. John did the same, automatically searching for the most expensive thing on it. He had a cover to maintain.

 

Well, John Wiley wasn't a fake identity, _exactly_. Born to wealthy parents and a knack for the stock market, John Wiley was John's actual name, the name given to him at birth. It was public knowledge.

What _wasn't_ public knowledge was that, after four short tours of duty (including active combat in Iraq and Afghanistan), he'd been recruited by the FBI, along with squad mate Joss Carter, where he now headed a small team in the Cybercrime Division.

Joss was actually the reason he'd joined the FBI, her moral compass a bigger draw than a shady offer from the boys down at Langley. They'd had a few encounters abroad, two soldiers helping each other out, but the foundation was friendship, and that was the relationship that lasted. She was married now, happily, with a kid in high school.

There were three other people on John's team, aside from Joss: Lionel Fusco, a former informant for the now defunct HR; Sameen Shaw, a former marine who had followed her best friend Michael Cole to the FBI (he was in another team in the same divison); and Leon Tao, a stockbroker John knew (former stockbroker now, ever since he'd helped bring down the money-laundering operations of the Aryan Brotherhood in New York)

 

"There's something going down tonight," Zoe said between bites of salad. John just kept eating his steak, waiting for her to go on.

 

"Some kind of hackfest," _Bite, chew, chew._ "Underground, very exclusive." _Bite, chew, chew._ "But a shady businessman looking for talent to recruit wouldn't be out of place."

 

John swallowed in a leisurely manner, mulling it over. The bureau could always use new blood, and the trail for the hacker Root was as non-existent as ever.

John was sick of chasing false leads to a cold case.

 

"Thanks, Zoe." John wiped his mouth and waved to have his car brought around. He didn't bother with the check, knowing that Zoe would _more_ than insist on picking it up.

 

He left the restaurant after seeing Zoe to her own vehicle, headed back to the Governor's Office. He headed to his own corner office, where he would switch cars before heading down to the bureau headquarters.

 

He had a job to do.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, in this AU, the FBI managed to get to John before the CIA, so here he is, working as a recruiter and investigator for the cybercrimes unit. Does he know a lot about computers? Not even a little bit. But is he one of the few people who can handle being on this team? Definitely.
> 
> also, i don't know anything about the military, so please forgive any mistakes. It wasn't really the focus of the story, so I thought a few inaccuracies could be mended later if it becomes important.


	3. Chapter 3

Hackathons in New York were far from rare. On any given week there were one or two going on. Mostly small ones, attended by fledgeling programmers. There were really only a few that the right people kept an eye on, and _Ternion_ was one of them.

Ternion was a semi-secret event, made _by_ computer geeks _for_ computer geeks, and only programmers (whether participating or spectating) and investors were allowed into the event.

For most programmers, just spectating was enough. With all the groundbreaking coding happening, most preferred to watch. There was a rule that no recording devices of any kind be on the convention floor when the coding happened, so most attendees were preoccupied with watching.

For the investors, there was a door fee that paid for everything (the hotel, the food, the equipment), as well as funded the prize that went the winning programmers.

There were a few people who went as both. Nathan was one of them.

 

"Welcome, Mr. Ingram!"

 

Nathan laid the charm on thick as he checked in, lightheartedly flirting with the receptionist. He made a show of checking in two mystery programers as part of his team. An Alan Turing (one of four in the event; thoroughly unoriginal), and a Mr. dinosaur. It wasn't unusual for contestants to keep their identities secret. But this was the first time that Nathan was participating himself, not just scouting talent for InTech.

Ternion wasn't a sandbox event, where the like-minded came to play. At its heart was a competition: three rounds, each one played by a different member of a three-person team. The scores per round was decided by audience vote, common enough for hackathons. And the winning pot varied from year to year, but it played around twent thousand dollars, give or take. Not the biggest prize, and all contestants received a participation fee. But, the most important part was really bragging rights.

Each round had its own theme. The first was for making a patch (repair), the second for breaking in to something (destroy), and the third was to make something from the ground up (create).

Arthur and Harold had checked in earlier under their own names. Nathan couldn't be seen with them, which was a pity because Harold would have loved to walk around with his two friends, but that was okay. They'd see each other later tonight for the first event.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a small update! I haven't written for this verse in a while, so here's a small snippet to get me back into it! :P


End file.
